World Seal, Ch 10: Meeting (Patreon)

When Sam arrived on the Second Layer, he didn’t fully leave the Void. He concealed his presence and wrapped himself in a layer of astral energy.

To anyone else here, he was invisible and immaterial. It would take a Titan or another race of the Primordial Void to sense him.

He watched his grandparents’ procession as they left their horses on the Sixth Layer, where the roads that were amenable to horses ended, and continued to head upward.

Eventually, they reached the Second Layer, where his parents were waiting for them. Jeric’s expression was hard, and Aemilia was frowning, but they were trying to hide their turmoil for the sake of politics.

Altey was nowhere to be seen. After the last kidnapping attempt, they’d decided to keep his sister out of sight. She hadn’t argued too much, since she understood the risks, but Sam knew she was hiding a few hundred feet away in a nearby building. Cora, the golem he’d given her as a guard and assistant, was with her.

Her attention was fixed on the arrivals. He didn’t blame her.

She’d never seen their great-grandparents before, but she’d heard about them, and not just from their parents. The Hasterns were famous and feared across the kingdom. She clearly wanted to find out if they were the same as the stories said.

Sam sent a series of runes formed from astral energy to surround her as a quick ward. They were invisible in the same way he was, but if someone tried to kidnap her, they would find out they’d chosen poorly.

Aldric and Jesai were the first to arrive at the head of the procession, and before long they were walking along the avenue that would bring them to his parents. They were probably irritated that they hadn’t been welcomed earlier, but there was no sign of that on their features.

They looked composed and confident.

Both of them were good looking, with barely any sign of age about them except for a few lines at the edges of their eyes.

Aldric was lean and well-muscled, with broad shoulders and shoulder-length golden-brown hair that was lightly tousled, as if he were young and carefree. He had a slight tan, as if he spent some time outdoors. His eyes were a crystalline blue like the noon sky, similar to how Sam’s had once been.

His expression was lively and he looked around with interest at the buildings they passed, studying the flows of moonlight and astral energy that ran through the stones.

Beside him, Jesai was elegant in the way that most noblewomen could only strive for, her movements subtle and commanding. Her features were delicate, with raven hair and eyebrows above bright blue eyes. She was slender and dressed in a form-fitting blue dress and white cloak.

She had ridden side-saddle on the way to the relic, although that hadn’t been the custom in the kingdom for more than a thousand years. It made her seem like a fairy-tale maiden from an earlier age, but her eyes gave away the depths of power she held, gleaming with bright energy like two sapphire wells.

Traces of Altey’s features were visible in her, and some of Sam and Jeric could be seen in Aldric, especially in the eyes and the nose. There was no denying the family resemblance.

Sam dismissed those thoughts as he focused on their classes again. They were the first Lord-tier classes he’d seen on Aster Fall. The only other one he’d heard about was that Lord of Wind and Water the bellisagi served, the one who’d tried to assassinate him in the past.

At least in name, they had the most powerful-sounding classes he had seen since returning to Aster Fall. It was no surprise they were so well known.

Aldric’s primary class as Lord of the Alabaster Tower was a form of Tower Magus, the elite class he’d created and that was taught at the Alabaster Palace, but it had been significantly upgraded.

He must have created the Tower Magus class at his Second Evolution, if not before, and then taken this one for his Third Evolution. It probably had similar but stronger bonuses to artifact use, magical research, and more.

It was noteworthy, but his subclass was more interesting. Hand of Seizure was some type of mana-focused class. Based on the brief notes Sam was able to access from the World Core, it allowed him to consume energy from other sources and make it his own, as well as to degrade enchantments and artifacts.

In some ways, it was similar to Shatter Aura, if he’d made an entire class around it, and to the Devouring concept of the Vos’Rekan. The connection there was troublesome. Devouring wasn’t a common affinity among humans, but it was among Outsiders.

On top of that, there was something else he’d discovered since returning home that was concerning.

All the evidence he’d gathered about Outsider artifacts on Aster Fall, including the one that the old King of Veritan had and the one that Micas used when he visited the relic, which consumed beast cores to damage auras and enchantments, had a trail that pointed in three directions.

Toward the exiled races like the bellisagi, toward the Cabal, and toward Tower Reach. Those were the three places where the trails crossed and that looked like the main suppliers. He didn’t doubt for a moment that his grandfather somehow had his hand in that mess.

Both the Alabaster Palace and Tower Magi were notorious for their dangerous research.

As for his grandmother, Jesai’s classes were no less powerful than her husband’s. She’d upgraded her original Dimensional Mage class to a similar Lord-tier one, the Lady of a Thousand Portals, which had significantly strengthened her dimensional abilities.

Her subclass, however, was a surprise.

Eye of the Shattered Storm was some type of elemental storm class, and its name was close to the Demon of Shattered Skies. Normally, he would have dismissed it as random chance, but there was a trace of strange energy about it, something combined with her dimensional energy.

It wasn’t true Outsider essence, or at least not any longer, but it had a similar signature. It should be from invaders who had come through a Flaw or one of their artifacts. Combined with her modified race, it made him curious about the subclass’s origin.

Perhaps they’d discovered more than just one remnant of the First War.

It made him wonder how his grandparents had spent the last three thousand years. Clearly, Asenya’s Fragments of World Authority had given them a powerful advantage and they’d made the most of it.

It was a good thing that he’d never gone to meet them before this. If he had, they probably would have been able to kill him with a glance, but now, things were different.

His parents were outclassed, but nothing would be able to harm them here, no matter how much these two tried. The relic’s defenses were enough to prevent it as long as they stayed on the top four layers.

He’d also given both of them defensive artifacts that could absorb blows from a Third Evolution opponent, and he was nearby just in case, but none of it should be necessary.

Even with their special circumstances and powerful classes, his grandparents were no longer a great danger...at least not in a fight. But that didn’t mean they weren’t a threat. They could still upset his parents.

Fortunately, based on his father’s expression, it looked like Jeric had written these two off a long time ago. His expression was tense, but not troubled. His frown betrayed irritation and a certain amount of indifference. He wanted to deal with them as quickly as possible.

His mother was much the same, except there was more curiosity in her gaze. She’d never met the two of them before, so it made sense that she was interested in her husband’s relatives, but her gaze was tempered with calm certainty, one that was even more complete than Jeric’s.

She trusted that whatever happened, it would be handled one way or another.

“Jeric and Aemilia...” Aldric spoke as he came to a halt in front of them, a bright smile on his face. His attitude was carefree, as if nothing could upset him. He looked at Aemilia, taking in her pregnancy, and grinned.

“It looks like congratulations are in order soon, grandson,” he said cheerfully as he focused back on Jeric. His attitude was the complete opposite of what Sam had expected. He seemed relaxed and easygoing.

Below that, there was a strong foundation of pride, but it looked like he was more flexible in his approach to getting what he wanted than Sam had thought.

“It’s been a long time since you came to see me,” Aldric continued. “I don’t blame you for that, given how I sent you away. I thought you’d come back to ask for my help again, but you never did. That was a surprise, I admit, especially when you ran off to the Storm Plains on your own. You’re the first of our family to leave like that.

“Still, I must have been blind not to see your potential. I owe you an apology for that. I would have taken better care of you. You’ve exceeded every expectation I had for you, unlike some of your cousins.” He glanced back at the entourage behind him and shook his head.

“I won’t try to fix what’s happened. I can see from your expression that you’re not interested. But I will suggest we start anew. There’s a lot we can do working together, and I can make this relic and this conclave a lot smoother for you, and keep people from causing a ruckus.

“Once they know you’re my grandson, they won’t be any trouble. They’ve learned respect over the years. I won’t ask for anything more from you than a hand in arranging things. What do you say? Can we find some common ground for that?”

His words hung in the air, accompanied by his faint and energetic smile. His Charisma was obvious, filling the air around him with a subtle pull that drew the eye, but its effect within the relic’s wards was insignificant.

Across from him, Jeric’s frown had deepened as Aldric spoke. It didn’t look like he was persuaded.

“Sometimes, things cannot be changed,” he replied, his words rumbling with displeasure. “To you, that day may be one you can move past easily, but for me it is not so easy to forget key moments that shaped my life. You treated me worse than the dogs in the yard.

“Everything that followed, and all the hard years of barely surviving...that could have been different with even a trace of your support. I didn’t ask for much, just enough training in a profession to make a life like my father had. He was trying to help me with that, but there wasn’t enough time...because of you he died too early. It was your experiments that drained his vitality and destroyed his aura.

“When he was pale as ash and lying in bed, at half the weight he should have been, did you come to visit him? Did you see your grandson die of aura exhaustion...his life burned out? Were you there when he turned to ashes and crumbled away? You knew what was happening, but you never came to see him.

“And when I tried to move past all that you’d done, tried to convince myself you didn’t intend it and went to you for help, you acted like everything was beneath you and it didn’t matter at all, just like you’re doing now.”

His voice was a crashing tide that made the snowflakes swirl in the air and the land beneath his feet rumbled in response to his words. His expression grew harder by the moment as old anger rose to the fore.

There were parts of this story that Sam had never heard. He listened as he kept a careful eye on the Hasterns.

Jeric had no reason to fear Aldric here, nor any reason to hide his emotions. It was probably the first time in his life he’d been able to speak his mind to him without hesitation. He’d planned to take the more political course, but Aldric’s cheerful attitude rubbed him the wrong way.

“You told me that he knew the risks and chose to help your work, and that if I wanted to have something of the Hastern wealth, I could go and earn it for myself, that you owed me nothing. That is why I left Tower Reach, because I could no longer stay in a city with someone like you who called himself my grandfather.”

His arms were folded, but his clenched hands left deep indents in his biceps. It looked like he was about to leap forward and attack Aldric until Aemilia’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He took deep breaths as he forced himself to calm.

“I do agree about one thing,” he growled as he looked at Aldric and Jesai and then at the people who’d followed them. “Sometimes the past is better forgotten. I would be happy to forget about you and my connection to the Hasterns. The heavens know I’ve wished for it often enough, every time someone hears my name and asks how we’re related.”

He shook his head, his mood turning cold and stern.

“If that was all, I might let it go now, since you refused to help me, and many orphaned children face the same day by day...but what gives you the right to stand here and act like nothing has happened, smiling like you’re innocent! You have forgotten something much more recent.” His voice rose as anger infused it again. “It’s only been a year since you tried to steal my daughter away!”

The air froze as a cold wind stirred through it, blowing across the mountainside and between the buildings. Snowflakes merged together, turning to sharp spirals of ice that hung around him.

“Do you think I don’t know Micas came here because of you? I know how the family works, and what is more I know him...he never had a spine unless you told him to stand up straight. Without your command, he wouldn’t have left Tower Reach and the easy life there! Now you come here and act like you’ve done nothing wrong?! The stories of you having lost your humanity long ago are true. You do not deserve the name!”

The earth rumbled with his words as his domain resonated with the Bloodline of Frozen Earth.

In the face of that anger, however, Aldric only looked disappointed for a moment. Then he shook his head and looked over at Jesai. Jeric’s emotion had little effect on him, except that he let the amiableness drop away from his expression.

“I told you the direct approach would be better,” he said as his attitude turned colder. A sense of authority began to radiate from him. “See? I should have just tried to buy him off instead of acting nice. It doesn’t suit me.”

“I told you not to be smug,” she replied calmly. “You infuriated him. That was always the most likely response, given your history. Did you expect that this would work?”

She didn’t have much more emotion to her voice than he did, only something like mild exasperation. Both of them were acting like none of this mattered, as if they’d asked for a cup of tea and been told it wasn’t served here. She looked at Jeric and Aemilia before shaking her head.

“I apologize as well,” she said as she ignored her husband, “for what little it is worth. It was my idea to bring Altey back to Tower Reach, not his. I was hoping to give her a better life and education...but it seems my intelligence was wrong on the matter. I didn’t realize you were still alive at the time, Jeric. I thought you’d died somewhere out on the Storm Plains and that the girl needed her family.”

She looked around, a spark of curiosity bringing some life to her elegant features, which were otherwise cold. It gave her a sharp and intelligent aura.

“I would still like to meet her, if you allow it. I hear she’s incredibly talented. That is all due to your hard work, both of you.”

Jeric’s only response was to grimace and cross his arms again, but this time Aemilia spoke up.

“I am sure that with all the knowledge available to you, there was a different way to discover the truth,” she said as she shook her head. Her tone was flat and much colder than Jeric’s. “We do not forgive you. If you had cared, you would have sent someone besides Micas...someone with a calmer approach who would have asked questions before causing so much trouble. He hired mercenaries to try to seize her from the village where we were staying. That will not be forgotten.

“There was time to make amends before this, so it’s obvious you’ve only come for the conclave and to escape the World Limit, seeking your own profit here. The two of you can’t even see how you treat people, so let’s dispense with other pleasantries and these attempts at apologies.”

“There are many other things we need to arrange for guests,” Jeric added as he spoke up again. “That is what you are here, not family, not grandparents...just guests like any other. Understand that, and your presence will be tolerated. Forget it, and we will have harder words, ones backed up by action.”

His words sent a harsh rumble through the Hastern delegation as hands reached for sword hilts and magic, but before any of them could protest, a sharp wind sliced between the buildings, accompanied by the loud roar of an ice drake in the peaks.

Where the wind passed, Ice Sylphs appeared, standing in shining crystalline ranks. Their hair and armor were covered in white frost, standing up in spikes that radiated sharp threat, and icy weapons gleamed in their hands.

A trace of the same energy passed over Jeric and Aemilia, making them crackle as ice formed across their bodies and disappeared again in the same instant.

In the sky, hundreds of black crystal Sky Guard golems suddenly appeared, floating above everything as their camouflage disappeared. Their wings refracted the light like black diamonds before they faded away from sight.

It was an impressive sight, making it seem like the bright winter sun had suddenly turned fierce and threatening.

“Fine,” Aldric said with a trace of amusement as he looked around at the Ice Sylphs and golems that made up the forces of the relic. There were two hundred of them in sight and the same number of golems in the sky, but despite being greatly outnumbered, it didn’t seem to bother him.

“Let’s focus on more practical things then,” he said as he looked at Jeric. “Since we’re guests, I’m sure you won’t mind answering a few simple questions about this Conclave and the one who called it? The ones anyone would ask...like who is this High Artificer of Aster Fall, and how did he convince the World Law to change its rules? How does he plan to remove the World Limit?”

There was silence as Jeric looked at him. The weight of his allies and the power of the relic was heavy on the surroundings, and made more so by his mood.

“You’ll find out the answer to those questions and any others you have at the same time as everyone else, when the High Artificer chooses to tell you,” Jeric replied, biting off the words like he was crushing ice in his teeth. “I’ll have someone show you to your lodgings.”

He clearly had no plan to tell them the High Artificer was their great grandson.

Aldric let out a cold chuckle at that. Amusement and scorn mixed as he shook his head.

“I suppose it’s good that I came early,” he said as his tone shifted, “so we can get all of this out of the way. You need time to learn your place, and it seems I’ll be the one to teach you.”

Gone was the fake cordialness, replaced by the iron edge of someone used to being obeyed. It looked much more natural on him.

Beside him, Jesai glanced at her husband and shook her head. A wave of dimensional power swirled around her. It should have been enough to slice apart the walls of reality and open portals on every side, but within the confines of the relic’s dimensional lock, it was faint.

She looked at the energy and then she stepped back farther. She clearly didn’t intend to be involved in this. She also waved back the entourage following them, which had begun to move forward, telling them silently not to interfere.

There was a lack of concern in her actions, as if she was only doing these things by rote.

“Forces and troops are one thing,” Aldric said, “but reaching above your realm is another. My descendants must know how to respect their elders. I’ve taught more than one Second Evolution upstart their place. It’s time you learned that lesson too.”

A strange swirl of energy was building up around him as he spoke, concentrated around his hands. It had to be part of his subclass, Hand of Seizure. It was a bright orange-red with threads of crystalline light woven through it.

“I’ve heard what happened at Veritan, and how the High Artificer destroyed the king. Since we’ve stopped being polite to one another, it’s time to test his power for myself, as well as the power that he’s granted you. Unlike that fool, I won’t gamble everything on attacking him.

“I’ll make one attempt with one of my strongest abilities. If you can resist it, I’ll follow along with the rules of this Conclave. If you can’t, then I will teach you and this High Artificer how to speak to your betters, and I will also take what you believe is yours. Let us find out whose power is greater.”

His palm glowed with power, as if he were commanding the area around him. He pointed at Jeric and then at the peak of Sun’s Rest behind him. His aura burned outward, shaping itself into an ability.

“There is a reason the king never steps foot in Tower Reach, the same reason that our kingdom has been secure from outside invasion since its founding,” he declared coldly. His energy was surging now as he looked around at the relic’s buildings, the peak of Sun’s Rest, and all of the golems in the sky.

“Ages ago, I earned a name for myself as the Lord of Artifacts. Those who face me find their artifacts obey me, and not them. That is the foundation of the Tower Magus class and the true power of the Alabaster Palace.

“This relic you’ve claimed as your own is just a tool. No matter how powerful it is, no matter how much it has changed your fate, it is something that can be taken from you by a stronger power.”

His words weren’t complete nonsense. Sam could see that he had a Trait called the “Right of Seizure” that matched his subclass, as well as other titles related to artifacts, including “Master of Artifacts.”

There was also a record of the World Spirit he’d slain to earn it, something that had cost him over a thousand Marks to balance with the World Core. It wasn’t clear how he’d accomplished it, but the result left him with some of the spirit’s power.

It had been called the Warded Sentinel, an enchanted stone golem that gained sentience. It had the innate ability to command lesser artifacts around it. It was probably one of the weakest World Spirits, but it was still stronger than Level 399.

Aldric had managed to make its trait his own. When he spoke, his words stirred the clouds in the sky and made the icy breeze feel hot.

“By the titles I hold and the Right of Seizure, let all here become mine.”

There was a strange power to the words, one that echoed with his traits as well as a touch of the World Core’s authority that had to come from the fragment that he held. It was augmenting the trait he’d gained from the World Spirit.

The energy was powerful, similar to the early Fourth Evolution, and it was full of arrogance, the same as Aldric was showing.

Aldric gave his grandson a cold smile as he waved his hand. His words sizzled like burning iron in the air as they formed into thousands of orange runes that flew outward, heading for various parts of the relic.

They homed in on the transfer lines, heading straight for them.

The relic’s lines began to glow with moonlight and bright astral energy. A wave of heavy pressure spread through the air as the relic’s attention turned toward Aldric.

Arcs of three-colored moonlight spread across the sky and the surface of the buildings. Their edges were cold blades, ready to destroy the attacker.

Aldric’s attention turned to them as he raised his hands, ready to shape another ability, but at that moment, a wave of silver light flowed out across the layer, freezing everything in place.

There was an edge of biting cold to it like the ice of the Void, and it hung heavy on the air.

The wave covered all of the orange runes and froze them in place, leaving them suspended in the air. At the same time, it waved back the moonlight blades, forcing them to disperse before the relic’s response was fully formed.

Then a massive golden hand reached out from the Void and swept across the area. As it passed, the orange runes shattered to dust.

The energy floated in the air, swirling in a cloud of broken light, as a towering form stepped out of the Void. He was over 250 feet tall and looked like a mountain peak standing on the Second Layer.

Sam folded his arms across his chest as he looked down at the Hasterns. Silence spread everywhere across the layer, even as the Ice Sylphs saluted him in recognition.

The Hastern delegation shuddered as they took several steps backward, their eyes locked on him. His parents looked up at his arrival, their mood turning kinder.

“What did you say about upstarts reaching beyond their realm?” Jeric asked bitingly as he looked at Aldric. “You have spent too long thinking you’re the strongest person around.”

Sam let his height drop back to seven feet as he walked over next to his father. He stopped beside him as he studied the Hasterns and shook his head.

Aldric frowned as he studied Sam, his eyes moving from his horns to the silver flames that floated around him, but he refused to take a step back.

“So, you are here,” he said. A slight smile made his lips curl as he tried to seize control of the situation. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

“I had hoped for better,” Sam said, “but it seems I overestimated you. It looks like an example is necessary for the others who are coming to the Conclave.”